WATCH: SC oral arguments for Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani, 31 August 2016

Assistant Solicitor General Rex Bernardo

Pascal appearing as councel for private

respondents heirs of Ferdinand E.

Marcos. We have attorney Hayasint E.

Raphael

Antonio invited as resource persons by

the courtyard honors. We have National

Historical Commission of the Philippines

chairperson honorable Maria Serena I jon

no formal former DIGG secretary Rafael M

Alunan the third PCG research department

director Danilo Richard V

Danielle OMBbudsman Konita Carpio

Morales Human Rights Victims Claims

Board Chairperson Lena Castillio Serento

and Commission on human rights

chairperson Jose Luis Martini Gascon.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh please uh may I

request the uh council for petitioners

to remain standing while the rest can

please take their seats. Uh the uh

council for petitioners have already

manifested that you are going to divide

your time according to the following

allocation. You have 30 minutes each.

Please confirm uh petitioner congressman

Ed Seligman will have 9 minutes 7.5

minutes for well I've this is my first

time to see fractions of minutes being

allocated talk about equity huh so 7.5

minutes for attorney Gerz petitioner

culmin will have four minutes attorney

Cortez will have 3.5 minutes Attorney

Balisi 3 minutes and attorney Latif 3

minutes. The uh is that confirmed?

Okay. Uh attorney Anama, you have your

timer set even for these fractions

because this is the first time you'll be

watching fractions. You've already been

given instructions on what to watch out

for for the color coding in the timer of

the court. And uh the uh court has

agreed that all of you six will have

your time. Kindly please while one is

standing here in the roast room the

other will be on standby. So we would

then spend time shifting our chairs and

uh waiting for the uh persons to be able

to approach the rost room and then we go

through all of them. We finish your 30

minutes and then the interpillation will

begin. So you've all received your copy

of the advisories both uh the

petitioners and the respondents and we

expect the issues to be argued

accordingly. Thank

you. Petitioner Lagman will please

approach the rost room while the rest

will uh kindly take their seats.

Good morning your honors.

Your

honors, far from being a

hero, former President Ferdinand Marcos

was a

desperate, an oppressor of the Filipino

people during the dark era of Marello.

He is grossly unfit to be buried in the

Lean Bayani. The ethmology of hero and

bayani is a warrior who protects or

defends his people. Verily, Marcos was

not the protector of the Filipino

people. He was its tormentor until the

Edsa revolution ousted him as a tyrant

and a pillager.

Marcos's cardinal sins against the

Filipino nation indubitably disqualify

him from a hero's burial in the Liban.

The following historical facts are

verifiable and incontrovertible. They

could be accorded judicial notice. One,

he declared martial law for malevolent

and contrived reasons to perpetuate

himself in power. Two, he padlocked the

Congress and arrogated the role of sole

legislator. To stifle descent, he

unwantedly incarcerated titans in the

political opposition and personalities

in the left. Four, he emasculated the

judiciary, ordered members of the BS

below the Supreme Court to resign and

cause the arrest and incarceration of

perceived enemies of the state without

bail and trial. contrary to judicial

processes. He want he wantly violated

the people's political, civil, economic

and human rights. Among the multitude of

victims of martial law, the most

unfortunate are the desparacidos because

not even crude crosses marked their

unknown graves. Six, he forcibly closed

media outlets, detain journalists,

suppress the freedom of the press and of

expression. Seven, he unlawfully took

over private enterprises and public

utilities. Eight, he plundered the

economy and amass illgotten hordes

amounting to billions of US dollars.

Nine, he allowed cronies to inordinately

and criminally enrich themselves. 10, he

ballooned the foreign debt from one from

1 billion in 1965 to 28 billion in 1986.

The payment of which including his B

loans constricted the budget of the

subsequent administrations at the

expense of

socioeconomic services. 11. He submerged

the economy to a GDP of menus 7%. And

12. He was ousted as a tyrant by people

power and dishonorably discharged by

popular action, a direct act of the

sovereign people.

No less than the honorable Supreme Court

in Marcos versus Manglapus confirmed the

Marcos's plunder when it b in 2003 the

return of the dictator and his family to

the Philippines in order not to

prejudice quote efforts to recover the

enormous wealth is st away by the

Marcoses in foreign jurisdictions

resulting in the precarious state of our

economy which is easily within the ambit

of judicial notice. unquote. If public

interest then justified barring the

return of the to the Philippines of

Marcos and his family, public interest

now must likewise bar Marcos's burial in

the hero's cemetery. In PCG versus Pena,

the Marcos regime's quote organized

pates unquote and the ingenuity quote in

the ingenuity of the plunderers and

pillagers unquote were judicially

underscored. In Republic of the

Philippines versus San Andigan Bayan,

the honorable Supreme Court forfeited in

favor of the Republic of the

Philippines, Marcos's ilgotten wealth of

more than 658 million US. Earlier on

December 10, 1997, the Swiss Federal

Supreme Court turned over to the

Philippines the original amount of 356

million dollars, ruling that, quote,

there was little doubt about the

criminal provenence of the secret Marcus

accounts and securities hidden in the

Swiss banks.

The brutalities of martial law were

validated by the US District Court of

Hawaii when on September 24, 1992, it

ruled that Marcos was capable of human

rights violations against around 10,000

claimments and the Marcos estate was

held liable for damages since during

dependency of the action Marcos had

died. This foreign court decision was

recognized by the honorable Supreme

Court in Mahares versus Ranada.

The Philippine legislative and executive

department also made factual

determination of the inordinate plunder

and wantton violation of human rights by

Marcos with with the enactment of

Republic Act number

10368 or the human rights victims

reparation and recognition act of 2013

which unequivocally establish the

following. A the human rights violation

victims are recognized as heroes while

Marcos has been held accountable for the

martial law atrocities if not personally

by command responsibility and be as

oppressor and violator of human rights.

The late dictator is obviously not

entitled to a burial in the

living against the foregoing

incontrovertible backdrop. There is no

reasonable and logical conclusion other

than that the late strongman does not

deserve a hero's burial in the living.

The Marcos family cannot relatedly claim

that Marcos is entitled to be buried in

the Lebingan because 23 years ago they

forced an agreement with the Ramos

administration that his remains be blown

directly to Ilkos Norte on September 5,

1993 and be given a quick burial bar.

This agreement is not denied by the

Marcos family. This agreement

constitutes a waiver even as the Marcos

family is also in histo because they

have They have allowed more than two